My friend, colleague and kindred curmudgeon, Martyn Cornell, is fed up. And rightly so. In a new post today at his blog Zythophile entitled Look, will you all stop misusing the word ‘ale.’ Thank you, he charts the transformation of the word from its earliest usage through the present. It’s a fascinating journey and an even more compelling story. Listen to him, he knows what he’s talking about.
There is something peculiarly English about their obsession with language.
But, more to the point, and to make it easier for John and Jane Q Beerdrinker, in today’s society, its all beer. divided broadly into ales and lagers. I really don’t want to have to explain 50 million times a day “well, a porter historically wasn’t an ale, it was called beer 200 years ago.”
I have a hard enough time telling folks “malt liquor” on a bottle of german dunkle is a meaningless term.
please lets not obfuscate the meaning even further